The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled against National Taiwan University (NTU) professor emeritus Ho De-fen (賀德芬) after she filed an appeal against the Ministry of Education over the doctorate President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) earned from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The court said that Ho does not have the legal right to ask the ministry to declassify related documents to enable her to verify the authenticity of Tsai’s doctoral certificate.
The ministry had provided Ho with Tsai’s resume and academic credentials during a court hearing on June 3, which met Ho’s demand, the court said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
In conjunction with political talk show host and former NTU professor Dennis Peng (彭文正) and Hwan C. Lin (林環牆), a professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Belk College of Business, Ho has since 2019 claimed that Tsai’s doctorate was forged, enabling her to teach at National Chengchi University (NCCU).
In September 2019, Tsai filed a defamation lawsuit against the the three, in which Peng was charged with aggravated libel. Prosecutors declined to indict the other two.
Ho filed the lawsuit against the education ministry after it rejected her request in September last year to provide documents related to Tsai’s time as a visiting associate professor at NCCU in 1984.
The ministry indicated that the documents have been classified and are to be kept confidential until 2049.
The Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) established a system that does not allow private individuals the right to demand an authority to explain such a decision or why information is classified, the court said in its ruling.
Regarding Ho’s request that the ministry provide her with Tsai’s doctoral dissertation and employment certificate when teaching at NCCU, the court said that the ministry had returned the papers to Tsai and therefore could not hand them to Ho.
Ho’s demand for NT$10 million (US$358,654) in compensation to cover the cost of traveling to the UK, where she hired a lawyer to help her collect information, was also rejected, as Ho could not provide evidence to support the claim or prove any correlation between the two matters, it said.
The court said in its decision that Ho’s demands were unreasonable.
The ruling can be further appealed.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as